Bullet in the Heart
by Corinne Jane
Summary: Unfortunately during a case of a young college student's murder Gibbs finds that he has more in common with Kort than he thought. CURRENTLY ON HIATUS


She was beautiful. She was five feet ten. She had sky blue eyes with a hint of hazel in them. She had golden hair the color of sunshine, a smooth porcelain white complexion. Sharp features contradicted the softness of her lips and hands. She had a birth mark on left shoulder in the shape of a crescent moon, and a tattoo on the side of her neck of a hummingbird. She was maybe136 pounds, forty pounds underweight for her height. Her ID said she was twenty-one and attended Yale. Her name was Serenity O'Reilly and she was dead. Murdered.

Strewn across the gutters on the DC street. She wore a silk dress, her prada heels and Gucci purse laying feet from her body. The stench overwhelming as the smell of runoff garbage and rain mixed with the woman's blood. The rain last night had washed away most of their evidence leaving NCIS Special Agent Gibbs in a very bad mood. Of course it didn't help that it would be his job to inform the young girl's parents that their daughter was gone for good and wasn't going to come home ever again. He studied the wounds on the body, they were extensive, whoever had done this was sick, he would have said sociopath but from the severity of the wounds it looked personal. What kind of trouble a twent-one year old Yale student studying to become a Social Worker could have gotten herself into was a mystery to him but you just never knew these days, it took all sorts.

Snapping on gloves I kneeled down by the young body, feeling her wrist, she was cold, but he knew the water would screw up the time of death and temperature of the body. He studied the wounds closer, he did this with everybody just in case he recognized a pattern or was familiar with the killer. Her dress was hiked up over her breast, one long knife wound ran diagonally across her abdomen, the cut was large and deep, her stomach and intestines ran out of her, it was obvious someone had cut her open, reached in and pulled out the organs. The killer had cut them open and let the fluids run down her body. He glanced up, the were other wounds on her chest, three stab wounds. And when that didn't kill her they had stabbed her in the neck, pulled out the knife and left her to bleed out.

He felt anger burning his gut, whoever did this was going to pay. He hated cases that involved woman and children, many times they hit way too close to home. He noted the bruising on her wrists, and neck, his eyes travelled down her body, coming to rest on the blood-stained underwear, his lips tightening. Ducky would have to confirm but it looked like they were looking for a rapist and murderer. Gibbs glanced up as McGee began taking photos of the body and the evidence surrounding her. Knees creaking he stood up, motioning Ziva to tag and bag the evidence, and DiNozzo to take witness statements. He walked over to the police tape where the responding officer stood trying to keep the crowd behind the yellow tape. He skimmed his eyes over the crowd looking for anyone who seemed suspicious, many times an offendor would come back to the scene of the crime for kicks, or just watch the cops process the scene.

No one seemed to stick out, so he turned to the rookie cop and took out his notepad, "You the responding officer?" The cop nodded silently, he looked pretty shaken, it was probably his first body, Gibbs didn't have time to baby him though he had a dead body on a marine base, and a murderer to catch.

"Why did the cops respond first, when it's so close to the marine base?" Gibbs shot him a piercing glance.

"I was the closest civilian officer, the call came into dispatch, we tried to notify the marine base but they weren't responding. So I went out there and found the body. Found it just the way it is, didn't touch or move it. The person who called wasn't anywhere's in sight." The officer repeated his face turning green as Ducky stuck the liver probe into her like she was just a slab of meat.

"What time was this?" Gibbs asked impatiently.

"About six in the morning. I talked to the neighbors they heard nothing." He said, Gibbs nodded and walked away without thanking him. He looked at their surroundings, they were in a secluded section of the city, there was nothing out here but forests and the marine base. Why would she be dressed to party when there were no bars? And why was she so far from Yale? Looking down at her once more before Ducky bagged her he vowed to get to the bottom of this.

He was just about to tell his team to wrap it up and get back to headquarters when out-of-the-corner of his eye a movement caught his attention, briefly glancing in that direction he could have sworn he had seen the bald, short figure of Trent Kort, but when he turned his full attention in that direction there was no one and no evidence that suggested anyone had ever been there. Frowning he turned around, the crowds were dispersing, but there was no sign of Kort. Shrugging it off he began to head back to headquarters with his team.

...

Returning from a ten minute coffee break Gibbs didn't break stride when he entered the bullpen, without looking up the team jumped into motion, Tony hit the button sending what little information they had put together in the time he had left. Glancing up he raised an eyebrow as Tony began to speak, "Serenity Maureen O'Reilly. Born September 25, 1990, Yale student, studying to be a Social Worker, no luck contacting the parents, in fact we couldn't even identify the parents."

Gibbs straightened up, "Somebody has to be paying her tuition. Did you call the college and request her information?"

"They won't give us anything without a warrant, I contacted the judge, he's issuing one as we speak. I did talk to her friends though, all four of them said that Serenity had never spoken of her relatives, never even mentioned she had any. They said that she got by one working two part-time jobs and recieved a bunch of grants and scholarships. So even with her college information the chances of finding any relative is slim to none. I also asked if she was dating someone, her friends said they'd seen her with a boy a few months back but he stopped coming around three months ago." DiNozzo said looking at the plasma.

"Which they said was odd since Serenity seemed wrapped up in him. When he suddenly dropped out of the picture she said she didn't want to talk about it and that she had moved on from him. She had never mentioned his name or why they broke up-or even if they had. We did get a description from one of the girls. She said the boyfriend was six feet one, brown eyes, black hair, mid-twenties, strong. Basically any college man, or adult in the surrounding area." Ziva continued.

"She seemed to have no enemies, but once again her friends said she wasn't very open about her problems-or anything for that matter. Most of them kept her around for her brains. They didn't notice anyone threatening her or following her. Nothing unusual happened recently and she seemed normal as ever. They couldn't think why anyone would want to hurt her, said she was beautiful but was a nobody." DiNozzo picked up again.

"She was wearing an expensive dress, means she came from money. Her parents would be fairly well known in Virginia. Look up anyone who makesover a hundred grand a year in the state of Virginia. Any luck with missing persons?" Gibbs turned to McGee as DiNozzo started towards his desk to start on the list of rich people.

McGee looked up, "Not yet boss, I'm still running it through. I have found something curious though when I was looking through the victims bank statements." The young agent pushed a button filling the plasma screen with the girls picture ID and bank statements. Every month on the fifth, like clock work a deposit of just over ten thousand dollars would be made into her account from an off shore Swiss bank account. I've tried tracking the account, but it keeps bouncing all over the globe as if a money transfer was being made. It looks like it's protected by a program in the computer." McGee said, "I did however get an account number." Writing it down he handed it to his boss.

Turning to Ziva, "Has she been out of the country recently?" He asked

"No, according to her friends, Serenity was very dedicated to her studies, she had exams this week, she refused to leave the room even to eat because she wanted to study." Ziva explained.

"Or because she knew someone was coming for her." Gibbs said. "Her stomach and intestines were pulled out, she was packing or someone thought she was. I'm going to see Ducky, keep searching for relatives and any other information you can find."

He punched the button in the elevator for Autopsy, frustrated. They had nothing other than a dead girl who had been raped and ripped open. And ten thousand dollars a month. It didn't make sense, surely someone knew her, she didn't just fall out of the sky. Turning into the Morgue, he watched Ducky place the organs into organ donor boxes. He looked up, "Ah Jethro, just in time. Miss O'Reilly was an organ donor, good lass."

"What've you got for me Duck?" Gibbs said like he always did.

"Miss O'Reilly was a very healthy young lady, exercised daily, ate right, extremely fit. No nasty habits. Cause of death was a stab wound to the neck, she bled out slowly. She was alive when this monster carved her up and took out her intestines and stomach, conscious for part of it too. I sent a blood analysis to Abby but I found no traces of her being a mule for anything. Time of death was about Eleven pm last night. She also had a tattoo on her rear end, name of Cecile." Ducky told him gravely. "I'm afraid that's all I have for you Jethro."

He nodded, turning back, "Duck, was she raped?"

Ducky sighed and nodded, "Yes, brutally, she fought him. I sent some skin cells I found under her fingernails to Abby for analysis."

"Thanks Duck." He said, as he swept out of the cold morgue and into the elevator the coldness following him. The girl had looked so innocent, the idea of someone raping her made him burn in anger.

He whisked into Abby's labs so fast she didn't even register that someone was in her lab until she heard her music turn off. Gibbs was giving her his no-nonsense stare. She gulped and kept her personality on the down low. "What do ya got Abbs?"

"I matched the knife to a military issued one. Titanium steel, a blade of six inches, sharp as a tack." She said, "There were no finger prints on the body."

"Duck said he sent you some blood and tissue to analyze?" Gibbs prompted her.

"There was nothing in her blood, she was clean. She wasn't packing anything. I pulled the DNA from the semen Ducky gave me but so far no hits in AFIS." She said, "But I can tell you one thing, she wasn't wearing the shoes you found at the crime scene. Her feet are too big for them. Whoever shoes they were they weren't hers. There may be a second victim."

"Thanks Abs, analyze her clothes, see if there's any evidence of that second woman on her." Gibbs said kissing her cheek before sweeping out. He hit the button, returning to the bullpen he looked at his agents who looked exhausted. It was ten at night, and still they had no breaks, they had already made a press release on the girl flashing her face all over national television hoping someone would come forward with information.

So far they had had nothing but false alarms, it was getting frustrated, I turned off my computer, grabbing my coat, I looked at my team who looked up at me slowly, "Go on, get out of here. We'll start again in the morning."

...

When he got home that night he could tell someone had been in his house, there were muddy tracks on his porch. Pulling out his gun, he took the safety off as he opened the door, lowering it when he saw Trent Kort sitting on his leather couch, making himself comfortable and familiar with his bourbon. Lowering his weapon Gibbs slammed the door shut, it didn't seem to startle the CIA Agent. Gibbs stared at the man, Kort was staring off into space, an empty look on his face, his eyes vacant and lifeless, it was an unusual look on the always aware and manipulating CIA Agent who's eyes always told a story, always thinking four steps ahead. He was slunked back into the couch, sipping Gibbs' bourbon, his shoulders slumped, he looked as if he was lost and confused.

"Kort." He said, slapping the man's feet of his coffee table, they fell off, the man looking up, the intensity of the gaze nearly made Gibbs shrink back.

"Heard you were on the Serenity O'Reilly case." He spoke softly and quietly, Gibbs had to strain to hear him.

"Yes. CIA have anything to do with this?" Gibbs said sitting down, Kort looked at him defeatedly. Kort shook his head.

"No. Not directly at least." He said looking into the glass of liquor.

"How about indirectly then Kort. if you know something about this case speak up or get out." Gibbs said taking the bourbon bottle off the table, pouring himself a glass.

"Her real name is Serenity Deanna Hayes. Her Mother was Charlie Hayes, CIA Under cover operative and Interrogator. Dead nearly fourteen months now." Kort drawled lazily, his town monotone, something Gibbs had never heard from the man. A suspicion began to form.

He opened his mouth to confirm it. "The Father?"

Kort looked at him for the first time in the conversation, his eyes tortured, guilt hidden behind the mask, "Me." he whispered. Gibbs sat back in quiet shock. He didn't know what to say, Sorry wasn't good enough, when his own daughter had died no words were good enough, he'd been beyond devestated his whole world had ended. What was the point of fighting anymore when the reason you fought was gone? There was nothing left for him to breathe for. He couldn't bare to go to an empty house. Their empty house. Which is probably why Kort was here, besides needing to share intel.

"You'll need to come in and identify her, Trent." He replied softly, looking down, Kort sat his glass shakily down.

"How'd my daughter die, what happened Gibbs? Tell me. And tell me the truth." He spoke softly ice in his tone. Gibbs glanced up at the CIA Agent, some pain was leaking through the mask but Kort was doing his best not to let his agony shine through. The shock of Kort having a family had knocked him off his feet, his mind was still reeling.

"Where were you between ten pm and twelve am last night Kort?" Gibbs asked in a hard tone, Kort raised his head fast and sharp, giving him a piercing look that could have killed.

"Do you think I had anything to do with this?" He snarled, murder in his eyes.

"You do." Gibbs said softly, he could see it in Kort's gaze, guilt. Hidden well but not well enough for Gibbs.

"I was at Langley, in a meeting with the Director, recieving a new mission. He'll confirm. I didn't leave the building until three am." He said angrily, he soon sighed, "I know who did this. It was a message to me."

Gibbs gaze sharpened. "Who?"

"Been hunting down the remaining members of the KGB, a few slipped through my hands. They banded together when they found out the CIA was onto them. For months they had been plotting to back Iraq, more specifically Al-Qeada. They had information on us that not only could be damning but dangerous. I was sent to eliminate them before they could sell our secrets to the terrorists. Unfortunately I missed a few, they must have tracked me to the States. But I don't know how they knew about my daughter." He said, stumbling on the last word, he clutched at his glass, his hands shaking slightly.

"She was recieving ten thousand bucks a month, know where that came from?" The NCIS Agent asked calmly. Kort shook his head.

"I sent it to her. Every month." He spoke quietly,swallowing tightly. "I don't know what I'm going to do with the extra ten grand a month now." Gibbs watched the man take a deep breath and take a bigger swig of the bourbon. "How'd she die Gibbs?" He repeated.

Gibbs looked at his own glass of the amber liquid and spoke tonelessly,"She was raped first. Then cut open, had her insides ripped out while she was still alive, before the monster stabbed her in the throat and left her to bleed out." He tried not to look at Kort but it was like acar accident, his eyes were drawn to the carnage.

Kort nearly lost grip on the glass, before setting it shakily on the table, leaning forward he ran his hands over his face, silent as he looked at his shoes, his hands fisted his face hardened, becoming stone as he looked back up at me. "Don't bother finding them Gibbs, I'm going to kill them." he said his voice shaking with grief. Gibbs looked at him as he stood. He grabbed an extra bottle of Bourbon, pushing it into Trent's chest, the man nodded at him before sweeping out the door. Gibbs wouldn't stop him. He hoped Trent got to them before Gibbs did. He was sure he'd see Kort again soon.

**Author's note-Hope you liked it, please review! **


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